


Twenty-One

by a_windsor



Series: Thing!verse [42]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_windsor/pseuds/a_windsor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s Thing Three’s twenty-first birthday. [February 17-19, 2040]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another new thing!verse? Has the world come to an end? There is only a brief Calzona appearance in Part 1, so I guess in some ways it is a bit of a Mi Vida prequel? Also, this story is my birthday present to roughian ... from 2013. So apparently if you wait long enough, you can cover two birthdays in a row. But happy birthday, bro! I had so much fun revisiting more grown up Things, and I hope it's worth the thirteen months of waiting! Beta’d by my dearest darling girlfriend. Thanks, baby.

 

***

 

When the black limo screeches to a halt alongside the curb, Caroline’s first instinct is to jump back three feet. When the door swings open to reveal her goofily grinning older sister, she falls back on her usual instinct of an eye roll.

“Get in, amor,” Lena commands.

“What are you doing?” Caroline asks skeptically, hiking her bag up on her shoulder.

“Thing Three, get your ass in the car,” Lena repeats, beckoning her in.

“Leni, what-”

Before the younger sister knows it, Lena has sprung from the vehicle and grabbed Caroline’s wrist, dragging her forward and then shoving her inside.

Under the multi-colored lights, three pairs of eyes find hers. Each sipping on a tiny bottle of soda, Grey Sloan, Nicky Altman-Tate, and her own baby brother Teo are all staring at her.

“Hey,” Nicky greets.

“Hola, Cari,” Teo beams.

“Happy early birthday!” Grey says brightly.

“What the _hell_ is going on here?” Caroline asks as the car starts to move. 

“Don’t worry,” Lena grins. “We packed you a bag.”

“Why would you do that?”

“We’re whisking!” Lena tells her with a pout, as if that should be obvious. “We broke into your dorm and grabbed you a bag because you are coming on a birthday adventure.”

“How did you break into my dorm?” 

“She knows your RA,” Grey tells her matter-of-factly. “Biblically.”

“Oh gross,” Teo groans as Nick makes a face.

“Oh yeah, you coming to law school at _my_ school is just the best thing ever. Where are we going?” Cari asks, rolling her eyes again.

“Caroline Grace,” Lena huffs. “You only turn twenty-one once, and Abuelito gave me the credit card and the jet. So don’t ask me so many questions.”

Caroline sighs and flops back against her seat, but there’s a little smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Because in some ways, Lena coming to U-Dub the year before _is_ the best thing ever.

“I have class tomorrow,” Caroline points out.

“I took care of that,” Lena dismisses. 

“You bang my TAs too?”

“No!” Lena laughs.

“My professors?” 

Lena levels a glare at her. 

“ _No_. I told them that we had a very important family commitment.”

“So _you_ lied.”

“No! This _is_ an important family commitment, Caroline.”

“Oh okay.”

“First things first: we’re gonna drop the under-agers off at the hospital where Tiny Dancer’s car is, say hi and bye to the moms, and then hit the road.”

“You boys aren’t coming with?” Caroline asks.

“They do have school,” Grey points out.

“Plus, Luis won’t let Nicky go to Miami; scared he’ll find some other pretty boy to bring home,” Teo grins.

“Shut up,” mammoth Nicky grumbles good-naturedly, shoving into Teo’s shoulder.

“Mateo Oliver! ¡Le dijiste!” [You told her!]

“Oops.”

“It’s okay, Leni. I figured that out at ‘Abuelito’.”

“It’s gonna be awesome, Cari,” Lena smiles genuinely. She jumps, then fumbles in her blazer pocket for her phone. She beams brighter. “It’s for you.”

Lena unceremoniously presses the phone to the side of Cari’s head before she canprotest.

“Oh my god, did she do it? Of course she did. Aren’t you _so_ excited? Ah! I’m so jealous. Only two-and-a-half months ‘til mine. Please come to Boston!”

“Hi, Susie,” Caroline grins.

“Happy birthday, you!”

 

***

 

“Well, uh, be safe. Have fun. Call me if you need to be bailed out,” Alex Karev says gruffly, leaning against the nurse’s station.

“Uncle Alex,” Caroline laughs. “Why would I call you from Miami for bail?”

“I dunno. That’s like the only thing I’m good for as a godfather.”

“Yeah, okay,” Caroline smirks, shaking her head.

“I got you a present, but you’re not old enough to have it yet.”

Caroline laughs. “So when I come back?”

“If you come back. What’d your godmom get you?”

“It hasn’t come in the mail yet. And it’s not a competition. Besides, Aunt Cristina is still trying to bribe me into med school, so it probably won’t be booze.”

“Whatever,” Alex dismisses. “Yang loves her tequila.”

“But I doubt she’s shipping it from Boston.”

Alex shrugs.

“You better hug her,” a familiar voice rings from around the corner. “This is the last you may see her alive.”

“I don’t know, Callie. Our Care Bear is tough.”

Caroline doesn’t even bother to turn around, fixing a withering look at Alex and saying:

“They are the _most_ embarrassing.”

“I’m not going to let her die,” Lena huffs. “I mean, I’m _not_ responsible for anything else, but I _will_ bring her home alive. Promise.”

“That one, too,” Caroline groan.

“Ay, hermana, ¿vas a bailar con los hombres bien guapos?” Teo chimes in, miming a bit of salsa. [Gonna dance with the handsome guys?]

“Oh god, all of them,” Caroline groans. “ _Why_ didn’t you steal me when I was younger?”

Alex grins. “I’d never be able to send you to Miami.”

“Alright, fair enough. Just don’t terrorize the juniors this way, okay?”

“You’ll have to steal ‘em,” Alex teases. “Parents have a right to be embarrassing. 

“Okay, okay,” Lena announces. “Hug, hug. Kiss, kiss. We’ve got a flight to catch.”

“To be fair,” Grey chimes in, “it’s a private jet that will leave whenever we get there.”

Lena gives him a withering look.

“Chop, chop, people!”

 

***

 

“She is a _monster_ ,” Arizona says as their daughters (and Grey) pile back into the limo and take off for debauchery she doesn’t even want to think about.

“Can’t imagine where she got that from,” Callie asks cheekily. “Pushy, bossy, demanding...”

Arizona narrows her eyes, but fails to rise to the bait, instead casually positing:

“Donor.”

Callie guffaws and leans over to kiss her cheek.

“Oh. Okay,” she allows with a warm smile.

“Do you think Caroline even wants all of this?” Arizona asks worriedly, for the third or fourth time since Lena told them of her plan.

“She’ll have fun,” Callie soothes her.

“That’s not what I asked,” Arizona counters.

“She’ll _have fun_. Maybe it isn’t what she would’ve come up with for herself. But Lena knows her. It won’t be _too_ crazy for her. Stop fixating. I know what you’re really worried about.”

“What’s that?”

“Thing Three is _twenty-one_.”

“Not yet!”

“Hours away,” Callie laughs.

Arizona looks disgruntled.

“It’s okay. We were already old,” Callie teases.

“Stop,” Arizona grins. “Should we go get our last baby? Before he grows up and leaves us too?”

“Sounds about right. But Teo’s going out tonight.”

“Oooh. House to ourselves, then?”

 

***

 

Caroline has made the flight between Seattle and Miami what feels like hundreds of times, but it never feels any shorter. Not helping is Lena’s insistence that she not be allowed to drink until 12:01am, February 19th, in order to make it more meaningful. Never mind that Caroline has been drinking alcohol for a few years now. At least Lena and Grey are abstaining as well.

For two badasses talking a lot about what crazy partying she is in for, they are currently looking very tame, playing a childishly competitive game of UNO and good-naturedly flirting with the lone flight attendant, who they’ve convinced to join the game. The flight attendant is pretty, sure, but she’s fifteen years their senior, and while it does little to slow those incorrigible flirts down (she’s pretty sure that they just don’t know how to communicate with other people except via flirting), no one seems to be taking it very seriously.

Which is good, because seducing the woman who is just trying to do her job would be both a tired cliché _and_ the moment Caroline chooses to snap her sister out of her post-Mia-break-up #2, sleep with every woman willing in Seattle, rampage. 

Caroline’s the observant one, and she knows that while the main motivation behind this trip is her birthday, this trip is also to try to get the last of Lena’s crazy out of her system.

“You bastard!” Lena cries as Grey triumphantly lays down his last card, and Emma, the flight attendant, laughs.

“Y’all take this seriously,” she notes.

“They take everything seriously. They’ve been competing for two decades,” Caroline speaks up. She sets aside her phone and decides to engage. “Of course, I’m better than both of them, so...”

“Oh-ho! Put your money where your mouth is, Caroline Grace!” Grey demands.

“Yeah, Care Bear. Pruébalo,” [Prove it] Lena grins. 

Caroline unbuckles and moves into the fourth chair around the table.

“Alright. Bring it.”

 

***

 

They land around midnight in Miami, and even though it is February, it’s still warm compared to cold and damp Seattle. Waiting on the tarmac is another limo, this one with their cousins ready to _whisk_ them all away. Julia, the older one, two years or so younger than Lena, sits perched irreverently on the trunk of the limo, the bright lights of the airstrip reflecting off her almost comically large earrings. 

“Stop being such a stereotype, prima,” Lena playfully admonishes as she embraces her. 

“I like to be sparkly!” Julia counters.

To her left is her much more reserved younger brother, Lucas, a year behind Caroline and a sophomore business student at Miami. Still dressed in an Oxford and sport coat, Lucas leans against the car, arms crossed over his chest. 

“Tan serio, primito,” [So serious,] Lena teases, kissing his cheek. 

His façade drops then, and he becomes the grinning little boy they grew up with. They can always bring it out in him.

“¡Bienvenido a Miami!” Julia says brightly once they’ve all hugged and kissed and teased. Julia opens the limo door with a flourish. “And feliz cumple a mi prima favorita.” [Welcome to Miami. And happy birthday to my favorite cousin.]

“Hey!” Lena objects playfully, arm slung around Lucas’s shoulders as they let the others pile in ahead of them.

Julia settles in next to Caroline, threading her arm through hers and snuggling in tight.

“Little control freak that she is, Lena has planned most of this trip to the minute, but if there’s anything you want to do, amor, just let me know, and I’ll make it happen. Te prometo.” [I promise.]

“Thanks. Are we going to your house or abuelitos’?” Caroline asks as the limo starts its journey, the bright lights of Miami passing into view.

“Abuelitos, claro,” Lena speaks up.

“Abuelita is waiting up, but Abuelito said he would see us in the morning, ‘cause he’s not loco enough to be up past midnight anymore,” Lucas laughs.

“‘Lita should be in bed, too,” Caroline complains. “She doesn’t need to be up so late either.”

“She’s not even my grandma and I know that’s never going to happen,” Grey chuckles.

“She has to see her chiquitas,” Julia agrees.

 

***

 

tbc

 


	2. Chapter 2

***

 

“¿ _Por qué_ no trayeron el hermanito?” Rosario Torres is asking again, still peppering both of her granddaughters’ faces with kisses. [ _Why_ didn’t you bring your little brother?]

“‘Lita, he has school,” Lena laughs. “We already discussed it. Besides, no puede salir con nosotros. Es demasiado jóven. [He can’t go out with us. He’s too young.]

“Se quedaría conmigo.” [He could stay with me.]

“Abuelita...” Lena complains, still grinning.

“Oh, well. You brought me my Grey. How handsome you’ve gotten, Grey. Buen mozo y caballero.” [Handsome and a gentleman.]

“Hi, Abuelita,” he grins.

“How is work? You’ve started nursing now, yes?”

“Yes! It’s great. I’m at the hospital, in the ER. I love it.”

“I’m so proud,” Rosario tells him.

Grey beams.

“Mira, Caroline. ¿Tienes hambre? ¿Necesitas algo? Cualquier cosa...” [Are you hungry? Do you need anything? Whatever...]

“A bed,” Caroline yawns.

“It’s only 9:45 at home,” Lena protests.

“And how much are you going to let me sleep after tonight?” Cari counters.

“I’m on her side,” Grey says, bright eyes drooping.

“Are you staying here or going back to your apartments?” Rosario asks Lucas and Julia, hopefully.

“I’m staying,” Lucas says, jacket over his arm.

“My bed here is so much comfier,” Julia answers, stripping off her earnings.

Rosario is delighted, shooing them off to the guest wing.

“Remember, Lena-nena, you promised me I could have her tomorrow, before you ruin her.”

“Ruin her?” Lena laughs.

“Grumpy, and tired, when you keep her out all night and ply her with alcohol,” Rosario grins.

“Grumpy is just Caroline. She doesn’t need to be hungover for that,” Lena teases.

“Anyway, Abuelito and I are taking you out for a nice dinner tomorrow, before they unleash you at midnight. Did you pack accordingly?”

“She packed,” Caroline nods towards her big sister. Lena grins widely and gives an exuberant thumbs up. 

“The question remains, then, amor, ¿playa o piscina?” [Beach or pool?]

 

***

 

“You’re a little manic,” Caroline says softly, nudging her sister with her big toe.

Lena looks up from her book, nose wrinkled. Sunning in the warmth, they are both trying to ignore Grey and Julia flirting down in the surf.

“I’m just excited,” Lena counters. “It’s your birthday.”

“For the last four months?”

Lena makes a face.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out with Mia. Again,” Caroline says honestly.

“It’s okay,” Lena smiles, but it is so fake. She puts the book down on the towel and sits up, cross-legged. “I just - I always thought that all that stood between us was timing and distance. But then we were finally in the same place, and both single, and well.... I guess if it didn’t work out this time, that just means it was never going to work.”

“You made it almost a year,” Caroline says.

“But apparently we can’t ever make it more than that,” Lena sighs, idly spinning a shell between two fingers.

“But now you know,” Caroline points out. “It’s not an ‘if only’ thing anymore, right?”

“Yeah.” Lena’s smile is genuine now. “Right.”

“ _Oh wise and wonderful, little sister, how grateful I am for you..._ ”

“Cállate.” [Shut up.]

“I’m glad you know now. I’d’ve hated to have another Asa and Katie in the family,” Caroline teases.

“Rude!” Lena objects.

Caroline laughs

“We were never that bad,” Lena defends.

“True.”

“So I know you don’t like talking to your embarrassing big sister about it, but how’s your love life going, hermanita?”

Caroline makes a face. “It’s not. There’ve been a couple guys, but…” She shrugs. “It’s never really mutual. Or long term.”

Lena could never understand that, Caroline knows. Lena who has girls lining up around the block for any type of relationship she may want. Lena who has probably never experienced anything like “unrequited”, except for maybe the odd straight girl. Not that she hasn’t “turned” a few of those.

“Lo siento, amor,” Lena says anyway.

“Don’t be. Are you okay?”

“I’m great,” Lena pops her dimples, and it’s much more genuine this time.

“So once you have your last hurrah tonight, will you calm down? Just a little?”

“Cari…”

“You worry me sometimes, Lena-nena.”

Lena gives her that mushy big-sister look Caroline always says she hates.

“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Gracias.”

“De nada.”

“So, are we gonna let them get away with that gross-ness or are we gonna tease them mercilessly?” Caroline nods towards the surf.

Lena sighs. “I don’t know. Compromise? Let them be gross and then tease them mercilessly tomorrow?”

Caroline laughs and takes up her book. “Deal.”

 

***

 

First there’s a lovely dinner with her abuelitos. 

Then there’s primping, so much primping, as Lena and Julia fawn over her and apply more eyeliner than Cari has ever _owned_ in her life.

And then there’s yet another outrageous limo ride as the clock clicks down to midnight.

Until finally they arrive at the door of some club Caroline can’t be bothered to learn the name of and sidle right past a long line in a way that makes her a bit uncomfortable. Julia and Lena approach the bouncer with their IDs drawn.

“I heard you were coming tonight, Deacon.”

“Miggy! These are mis primas! It’s Caroline’s cumple,” Julia smiles as Caroline more tentatively extends her driver’s license. The large man checks the card.

“Ah. _That_ cumple.” He checks his watch. “It’s only 11:55, Julia.”

“ _Miguel_ ,” Julia pouts. “We want to have her _at_ the bar, drink in _hand,_ at midnight. Por _favor_.”

“There are things called _laws_ , Julia.”

“She won’t drink anything, I promise.” She hooks a thumb at her older cousin. “Lena’s almost a lawyer! She loves rules.”

“Okay,” Miguel gives in with a twinkle in eyes, directing his attention to Caroline as he returns her license. “Feliz cumple, querida.”

 

***

 

The music is, well, _loud_ , of course. Lena and Julia each take her hand, Grey leading the way, tall above the crowd. They pull her along toward the bar. But the music is good, at least, and as they approach the bar, Grey wisely finds a spot and then relinquishes it to Julia. Julia notices that the closest bartender is a woman and wisely relinquishes the spot to Lena.

“Work your magic, prima.”

Lena laughs and leans over the bar. Caroline doesn’t catch the rest of the conversation, too busy taking in the flashing lights and crowded bodies of the dance floor. The next thing she knows, a shot is being thrust into her hand and Grey is elbowing Lena in the ribs and, with a wide grin, directing her attention to the scantily clad go-go dancers strategically placed throughout the dance floor. Caroline meets Julia’s gaze and the cousins share an eye roll. 

“¿Qué es?” Caroline asks, holding up her shot glass. [What is it?]

“Don’t ask questions!” Lena tuts. She glances down at her watch and raises her glass. The others follow suit, glasses clinking together. “Five, four, three, two, one! Feliz cumple, Cari!”

The shot burns going down. Grey is the first to wrap her up in a bear hug of celebration, lifting her off the floor, even as the liquor is still warm in her stomach.

Tequila, great. It’s gonna be quite the night.

 

***

 

“That girl is into you,” Cari notes as her sister gives her a salsa spin. 

“Ya sé,” Lena gives said girl a smile, but keeps her attention on Cari. 

“Aren’t you gonna do something about it?”

Lena shrugs. 

“Nah. I’m here to celebrate my baby sister’s birthday.”

Caroline smiles. Beside them, Grey and Julia are still pretending that they’re there for her while dancing exclusively with each other.

“But that chico over there is totally checking _you_ out, and he’s super guano, so you should go dance with him.”

Lena spins her again and gives her the slightest of pushes towards the guy in question. He’s cute, has an inch or two of height on her, and he smiles at her kindly, not creepily.

“I dunno, Lena…”

“ _One_ dance, Caroline! Have fun! But don’t hesitate to break his fingers if he gets unwantedly handsy!”

 

***

 

Caroline’s not really awake until her knees hit the porcelain. Even through her puking haze, she’s kinda impressed with herself for getting to the bathroom. On round two of the tequila redux, the door to her guest room’s bathroom creaks open.

“Buenos dias, Thing Three,” Lena says softly. She’s dressed in pj pants and a tank top and looks remarkably healthy and energetic given the night before.

Caroline, stomach stable for a moment, leans back to sit on the cool tile. Lena hands her the large glass of water she carries. Caroline takes a swig, rinses, and spits into the toilet, flushing.

“I can’t believe I got drunk enough to puke.”

“That was so irresponsible,” Lena says seriously.

“Yep,” Cari groans.

“I’m so proud!!” Lena squeals.

Cari winces.

“Thanks? You were very well-behaved. Even if you did a shot _off_ of one of the go-go dancers.”

“Two,” Lena corrects brightly. “Two shots. One go-go dancer.” She holds up her hand to show a smeared sharpie phone number. “You’ve got one too!”

“What?”

She looks down at her forearm to see a neatly printed number and the name Felipe.

Right. 

Felipe.

“Why are you so chipper?” Caroline petulantly asks of her sister.

“Experience. Breakfast. Plus, you fell asleep before I could get enough agua into you. For the record, you though the go-go shots were hilarious at the time. How much do you remember?”

“Everything.”

“Good!

“Lena?”

“Yes, amor.”

“¿Vas a contar a las madres?” [Are you gonna tell our moms?]

“That you puked?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, definitely.”

 

***

 

el fin 


End file.
